ProFantasy Software's Fractal Terrains Pro [1] world-building software allows you to view a world by altitude. This short tutorial explains how to apply the altitude colours used in Chimera-style maps.

Creating and Applying the Palette

Fractal Terrains Pro (FT) stores altitude colours and lighting data in a simple text file. This file has a ".lgt" extension and contains RGB colour values for each altitude range. The file may be edited with any text editor (e.g., Notepad, TextPad, EditPad, et al.)

We've included the Chimera-style altitude palette file here, but if you want to see what makes it tick, follow these steps:

1. Create a new TEXT file in Windows, using your favourite text editor
2. Name the file "Chimera.lgt"
3. Open the file and paste in the following contents:
   

   LightParms
   Name           ""
   BitDepth       24
   Colors         15
   Levels         15
   Ambient        1.00000
   Gamma          1.00000
   AltMode        0
   LandOpacity    0.00000
   SeaLevel       0.00000
   SeaLowest      -9144.00000
   SeaSatMin      0.00000
   SeaSatMax      0.00000
   SeaOpacity     1.00000
   SeaEqual       0
   SeaFloat       0
   VertExag       1.00000
   Corner         0.00000
   Unit           1
   az             315.00000
   el             45.00000
   AbsColor       0
   AbsMin         0.000000
   AbsMax         0.000000
   IceNorth       0.35000
   IceSouth       0.35000
   IceColor       16777215
   IceOpacity     0.75000
   BlendLat       0
   BlendAlt       1
   BlendSlope     0
   BlendFacing    0
   BlendLatVal    0.00000
   BlendAltVal    1.00000
   BlendSlopeVal  0.00000
   BlendFacingVal 0.00000
   BlendFacingNDir 0.00000
   BlendFacingNVal 0.50000
   BlendFacingSDir 180.00000
   BlendFacingSVal 0.50000
   FacingRelate   0
   
   AltColor ColorList
   Gamma 1.00000
   Mode 0
   Data
    156, 197,  75,""
    203, 222, 104,""
    226, 238, 162,""
    250, 235, 180,""
    255, 217, 152,""
    239, 181, 117,""
    191, 157, 156,""
    211, 192, 188,""
    234, 224, 212,""
    255, 254, 252,""
   ColorListEnd
   
   SeaColor ColorList
   Gamma 1.00000
   Mode 0
   Data
    185, 231, 254,""
    219, 247, 251,""
    247, 255, 255,""
   ColorListEnd
   
   NorthColor ColorList
   Gamma 1.00000
   Mode 2
   Data
   ColorListEnd
   
   SouthColor ColorList
   Gamma 1.00000
   Mode 2
   Data
   ColorListEnd
   
   SlopeColor ColorList
   Gamma 1.00000
   Mode 2
   Data
   ColorListEnd
   LightParmsEnd
   

4. Save the file and close it (suggested path: "/FT/Coloring/Chimera.lgt").
5. Open FT
6. Select Map -> Lighting and Colour
7. Select the "Select Coloring Scheme" tab
8. Double-click on the "Chimera" entry in the colour scheme list
9. Click Apply and close the Lighting and Colour dialogue
10. Select Map -> Show Altitude

Note that these colours won't always map properly if you export the FT file to Campaign Cartographer 2, but you can modify CC2's palette to address this minor issue.

Results

[1]The image shown at right is a thumbnail of The World of Ammonkis, represented as an FT altitude map (click on the image to open a larger view in a new window). For the curious, the map projection is Miller Cylindrical, and gridlines are shown at 30° from the equator, shown at the midpoint of the map's horizontal axis.